I’m looking for some feedback on these two college options for my D18 and whether the price difference is “worth it” for Oxford/Emory. UGA Honors (after scholarships) will cost $12,000 per year. Oxford/Emory (after scholarships) will cost $35,000/year.
The $35,000 figure is right at the top of the budget we gave our daughter. It is doable with some belt tightening and won’t require us to remortgage our house or raid retirement plans. We might have to diminish contributions to retirement plans for a few years, but could do it without our daughter having to take out any loans. On the other hand, we’ve told her that if she goes to UGA, we’d be able to help her with grad school or first apartment costs, etc.
She wants to study neuroscience/psychology most likely. She much prefers the smaller size of Emory, particularly with the first two years at tiny Oxford. Any opinions on the relative value of these 2 schools and whether the Emory brand is worth the $23,000/year difference?
Thanks!
Not worth the difference. If she is planning to go to grad school save the money for a masters degree. A Ph.D. is likely to be funded so the cost should be be low. There are more frequent unexpected circumstances that creep up (presumably you are in your late 40’s/50’s) - job loss, health issues, etc. etc. and the lower cost option will assure she can finish with no pain. Should she change her mind and want to go to med or professional school, which will cost $100-$300K, you will need the money in the future. Otherwise give her a nice graduation gift.
i know on the face of it that it makes sense to go for the less expensive option…so I will endorse that…but I happen to have an old lawyer friend (who has argued two cases in front of the Supreme Court) who went to Oxford/Emory and he speaks so highly of his education…so I’ll just toss that out there…
Over 4 years the cost difference would be roughly $92,000–which is a significant amount.
If the student was certain of his/her major, then it would be wise to check if either school offers substantially more opportunities in, for example, neuroscience. If not a significant difference, then UGA Honors College might be the better option.
I hesitate only because the student is considering majoring in neuroscience & Emory has an outstanding reputation in the medical community (and is located close to the CDC–if I recall correctly).
The CDC is adjacent to the Emory campus.
@Emmycat
Oxford and UGA cannot be more different, if there is a premium on campus culture than go to Oxford if your daughter prefers that. You gave your daughter a set amount before the application process. If OxfordEmory meets those requirements then let your daughter decide.
Thanks so much for the feedback, everyone. I agree with you, @vandemory1342, that we gave our D the parameters and have to let her decide since she’s been fortunate enough to get Oxford Emory within those parameters. I’m just trying to gather as much info as possible to help her make a wise decision. All of your responses are very helpful.
Another thing to consider is what the $20k/year difference could pay for. This is part of the calculus for our kids—we have a budget that will pay for all four years at an expensive school, but if they spend less than that, the savings could be used not just for graduate study but also to fund summer and study abroad programs.
If you save $20k each year by choosing UGA honors, then that savings could fund a summer at the Middlebury language school (appx $10k for 9 credits, all inclusive), the living expenses of an unpaid internship in a major city, the unpaid research opportunity during summers, or a summer program to explore an interest at a foreign university. If your child chooses to exhaust the budget solely for tuition and living expenses in the fall/spring semesters at Emory, presumably summers will need to be funded by getting a job or else by additional scholarships.
Thanks @BooBooBear. I pointed that out to her. She said she didn’t think she’d miss studying abroad if she was at Emory, but at least I warned her! The problem is that we let her tour Emory on a perfect spring day 2 years ago before she’d seen any other college and it has been her gold standard ever since. She did what we told her she had to do and earned the scholarship that makes it affordable, so it’s hard to discourage her now.
She prefers the size and I know she also likes the “prestige” of the Emory name. But, I’m trying to figure out how much value there is in the Emory name and experience, particularly in the neuroscience field. When she looks at the numbers, I can see her wavering and just want as much info as we can gather to make the choice. It is a lot of $ and a lot to think about! Thank you all again for your thoughts.
@Cookies510 - Yep! I left out all the in-between choices because I was trying to keep it simple and I was curious to get people’s thoughts on the relative value of those two options, in particular. She wanted opinions on all the choices, though, so posted on her own. I’m grateful that she has all these good options, but the decision is ending up being much tougher for her than either of us expected.
@Emmycat So true that while its great to have multiple options it’s just that much tougher to decide. There was good advice on her thread that I hope helps narrow the choices.
It’s a large difference in money, and if she thinks UGA is good enough academically and she wants big-time sports, UGA probably is the choice.
But Emory is so good in the med-related sciences – and many other areas should she change her mind – and the CDC is right there, and Atlanta surely has other med research opportunities at hand. And I think the Oxford/Emory combo is kind of a hybrid education: you’re at a LAC (Oxford) for two years and then finish up at the U (Emory). Being at Emory all four years surely is a quality path too. But the Ox/Em combo seems unique.
She does believe UGA is good enough academically, but she doesn’t want big-time sports or the huge greek life that UGA offers. I think she’d be much happier there than she realizes - my husband and I both went to honors colleges within large state universities and we know how you end up finding your smaller place within the large school.
But, I agree that Oxford/Emory is a unique option that might give her the best of the small LAC environment for 2 years and then the two years at a mid-sized, first class, research institution. Plus, it’s been her dream forever and I’m so happy for her that she got the unexpected scholarship that makes it just affordable. If she wasn’t wavering now, we’d keep quiet and sign up for Emory today. But she’s also a practical kid, and now that the possibility is actually available, she’s starting to look more closely at the value. I think we need to go look at the Oxford campus. If she likes it as much as she loved the LAC atmosphere at Sewanee and Rhodes, I think that will make up her mind. We also need to dig deeper into the various courses and internship possibilities offered in her area of interest at both schools.
Thanks again to everyone for the advice on both of our threads!
Yes, definitely go see Oxford. My D was deciding last year between UGA honors and a small LAC. She really wanted the smaller classes and the chance to get to know the professors better, and even with the honors program it just wasn’t the atmosphere she wanted. I’ve heard great things about the Oxford community and it seems like those two years would be a unique experience. I’m guessing she would have more opportunities for research at Emory although both psychology departments are strong. It seems that making the decision about how to spend the money should depend somewhat on her future goals. Does she have ideas about what she wants to do with her psychology degree?
@elena13 - She’s not sure, but likes the neuroscience side of psychology, possibly research. Med school is a possibility, but I don’t think that’s her plan right now. If she goes the research route, I would guess that would require a Master’s and possibly Ph.D. If she was definitely leaning toward medical school, I’d push a lot harder for UGA so that she could maximize savings and hopefully graduate with a top GPA.
Thanks for your thoughts. I’m glad to hear you and your daughter have been happy with her choice. It’s so hard to predict how things will turn out and what is the right decision when these kids are only 17!
@Emmycat, we toured both the Honor’s orientation at UGA and Emory. Honors program at UGA is one of the best in the country. S is into the Honors program at UGA but will make his final decision in a couple weeks after all results are back.
If D wants to do research, she can apply to be CURO at UGA and there is tremendous support at UGA to hook her up with internships and research, even can apply for $4,000 study abroad research grants.
I know Emory is strong for pre-med and not sure where neuroscience falls, but consider that UGA will likely be easier to get higher GPA if D wants to pursue med school or grad school down the road. It is likely more rigorous and harder at Emory to keep GPA up at Emory in some of the weed out classes. Honors classes at UGA also have some smaller classes available to take. Myers Hall is the designated Honor’s dorm and very nice. There is a serious community of students there, so Greek life is not going to be an issue. Also, food at UGA is consistently ranked one of the highest in the country for colleges.
That being said, D will have consistently smaller classes at Emory and Oxford. At Emory, she would have access to great internships right at the CDC or in town hospitals. Some of those may be available through UGA in the summer though. UGA may have a Double Dawg Master’s Degree available in her major as well (Masters in 5 years).
If D has a lot of AP credits going in, UGA students can often double major in 4 years as well. We met a student who actually got her Master’s Degree in Public Health and and Undergrad degree in Communications at UGA in four years! I would save the “prestige” for grad school if she does not get her graduate degree in five years at UGA. Emory is a great school too so can’t go wrong either way. Good luck!
OP,
elena13 is right. Take a very close look at Oxford/Emory. Emory overall a fine school, but it is not an LAC, despite its relatively smaller size (7,000-plus undergrads), though the Oxford half would help with this. Still, even in upper level courses, do not assume that it will be the sort of place where she’ll enjoy intimate classes and form close friendships/mentor-mentee relationships with professors (she will with some professors, I’m sure, but do not assume that this will be the norm). The atmosphere will be more like the Ivies and Ivy-likes (Vanderbilt, Duke, Johns Hopkins). There will be more mixed results with teaching effectiveness and teacher accessibility.
I am not trying to knock Emory. Not at all! Again, it’s a terrific school. I just issue this caution because even though plenty of students head off to Ivies and Ivy-likes and have great experiences, there are those few who will suffer from buyer’s remorse, almost always because they didn’t look closely enough at the school. They figured that the university’s brand name and the low acceptance rate signaled a perfect fit.
Of course, the issues I mentioned above will (hopefully) be only occasional concerns, and, of course, if your daughter’s choices have been narrowed down to UGA or Emory, well, those issues will also be present at both schools. But there is a significant price difference to consider.
@Emmycat, I know so many things can change with college majors and future plans. If she were to get into a PhD program, that would be funded and you might feel good about the money spent on Emory. The chances for research opportunities might be better at Emory (maybe not) but doing that research would be essential for getting into a PhD program. On the other hand, if a masters degree were more likely, I might choose to spend less on undergrad and go the UGA route. I’m not sure of all the job opportunities in neuroscience, but generally a masters degree in psychology would be somewhat costly and not lead to many high paying jobs.
Thank you all for the additional responses! I was away from this site for a few days and didn’t notice your responses until just now. You all make great points. Part of the difficulty is she just isn’t that certain what she wants to study or - even if she sticks with neuroscience - whether she’d want to go the Ph.D. research route, or medical school. I agree with your point too, Hapworth, that main campus Emory may be less supportive and liberal arts college-like than she thinks. Crossing my fingers that spending some time with detailed course catalogs and going on admitted student visits will help give her some clarity.
Thanks again!